Decisions
by CastleQuill
Summary: Sam stops Blaine from making a terrible decision. Reaction to the promo for "All or Nothing". Friendship!Blam with Klaine endgame.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. If you recognize it, it isn't mine.**

"Hey, Sam! Sam!"

Blaine grabbed his best friend by the arm as he was walking to class. Sam turned and grinned. "Oh, hey. What's up?"

"I need to tell you something." Blaine could barely hold back a grin as he led Sam over to a less-crowded hallway and looked around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. The last thing he needed was for some gossip-monger to overhear and tell Kurt before Blaine got the chance to say anything. "I want to ask Kurt to marry me."

Sam's mouth literally dropped open. "Are you serious?"

"Yes!" Blaine exclaimed, doing all he could to keep from bouncing with excitement. "I know we're young, and it's a little crazy, but we're meant to be together. And I figured there was no sense waiting around when we already know that we're soulmates, and we-"

"Blaine, no. Just no. You can't do that."

Blaine stopped, staring at Sam in surprise. All of his excitement immediately died. "What do you mean no?"

"I mean that this is a bad idea," Sam said, lowering his voice as a student walked past them. "There's no way I'm letting you freakin' propose to him."

To be honest, Blaine knew from the beginning that people would think he was crazy. That they'd compare him to Rachel and Finn, even though this was completely different, and he and Kurt were so in love that it'd be crazy not to ask. But out of everyone - his friends, his parents, Kurt's parents - he'd thought that Sam would be the one person on his side. The fact that he wasn't... The betrayal stung.

"Why are you telling me not to do this?" Blaine demanded, barely remembering to keep his voice down. "You're the one who tried to marry Brittany at Christmas!" Maybe it wasn't fair to throw the fake-marriage-thing in Sam's face like that, but Blaine was too hurt to care.

"Which is how I know that this won't work," Sam said. "Listen, I love Brittany. I think I want to marry her someday. But that day isn't now. You don't know how panicked we were when we woke up and realized that the world hadn't ended, and we thought we'd have to be together the rest of our lives. Neither of us were ready for that. Beiste telling us that the wedding was a fake was the best news I ever heard in my life." Sam stopped talking and sighed. "You're mad at me now, aren't you?"

"Just because you're not ready for marriage doesn't mean that I'm not," Blaine said, and he couldn't stop the hurt from creeping into his voice. "I just thought that you'd support me on this! I was kind of hoping that you'd be my best man."

"And I will, in a couple years," Sam said, but Blaine was already turning away. "Wait, Blaine! Stop!" Sam ran forward and grabbed his shoulder. "Listen to me for a minute. You may be ready for this, but is Kurt?"

Blaine stopped. "What do you mean?"

"Come with me, okay?" When Blaine didn't respond, Sam dragged him to the corner of the hallway where they were even less likely to be overheard and forced Blaine to face him. "Why aren't you and Kurt dating right now?"

Blaine frowned. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Sam said. "You're in love with him. Obviously you want him back. So why aren't you together?"

"Because Kurt hasn't decided if he's ready to... Oh." Blaine's voice trailed off.

Sam nodded and squeezed Blaine's shoulder. "Exactly. You're not together because Kurt isn't ready to be. And no offense, but he kind of has a reason. You're like the best dude I know, and nothing's going to change that, but you did hurt him a lot. The last thing you need to do is pressure him into thinking about marriage when he's still not sure about what he wants."

Blaine stared down at the floor, refusing to meet Sam's eyes. Mostly because he could feel tears starting to form, which made him feel so weak and stupid, but he couldn't hold them back. "You don't understand. I need to ask him."

"Why?" Sam asked, a lot gentler than he'd been a moment before. "I know you. Most of the time you'd think of Kurt's feelings before doing something like this. So what's worrying you?"

Blaine blinked hard, forcing the tears back. He had to swallow the lump in his throat before he could speak. "Nothing."

"Blaine..." Sam said.

"It's just, we had sex at the wedding," Blaine said, shifting uncomfortably. He'd never admitted this to anyone before. It felt too personal to say out loud, and also like he had done something wrong, which wasn't how he wanted to feel at all. He should be shouting it from the rooftops, not cringing as he tried to tell his best friend. "And I was so sure that it was the beginning. We were going to get back together, and both of us would work out our problems, and it would be great. But it didn't happen. And then his status updates on Facebook started to include this guy Adam. I know they're not dating, but it's only a matter of time unless I-" He took a deep breath. "I need to make sure he knows I love him before he chooses someone else."

"But this isn't the way to do it," Sam said. "Forcing this on him is only going to make things worse. And really, I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"You don't," Blaine asked, not quite sure what Sam meant.

Sam shook his head firmly. "I saw the way he looked at you all week. He does love you. I know he does. He just needs you to step back and not pressure him into showing it."

"But what if-"

"No," Sam said. "The last thing you want to do is marry him just because you're worried that he might fall in love with someone else. It's not fair to you." He stuck out his pinkie toward Blaine. "I want you to promise that when you do propose for real, it's because you really want to be with this guy forever, not because you're scared of losing him."

Blaine slowly curled his pinkie around Sam's. "I promise."

"Good." The bell rang just then, making them both jump; they'd completely forgotten that they had classes to get to. "I'll see you in Glee," Sam said, giving Blaine a quick hug before hurrying off. "Come find me if you ever need to talk about this some more!"

"I will," Blaine called after him, then ran off to his own classroom.

That night, Blaine went home and pulled out the box he had hidden in the back of his drawer, where his parents would never find it. It had cost him three hundred dollars, which was a major chunk of his savings from all those years of singing in theme parks. But Kurt deserved something special, something beautiful. And this ring was definitely both of those things. It was the kind of thing he'd hoped Kurt would wear every day, and he'd made sure to look for one that would go with every outfit. Kurt hated to have things clash.

This ring meant everything to Blaine, even if it was just a piece of metal. He'd spent hours looking at rings, searching for the perfect one that would make Kurt the happiest. Just looking at it made Blaine want to propose, just so he could have a chance to see it on Kurt's finger.

Instead, he closed the lid and tucked it back into the drawer.

The next day, Blaine approached Kurt after Glee. "Would you like to get some coffee?" he asked. "Just the two of us, I mean." Because there was no way he could go without having Kurt in his life in some way. He wouldn't force Kurt into anything, or make him uncomfortable, but he had to ask.

To his surprise, Kurt actually smiled and nodded. "I'd really like that."

Sam shot him a thumbs up, which Blaine tried to return without Kurt noticing. It didn't work, but luckily Kurt just rolled his eyes and smiled at Sam.

It became an after-Glee tradition. Every day they would stop by the Lima Bean and sit there for hours, talking about Regionals or NYADA or Rachel's upcoming audition. Sometimes they told funny stories that made each other crack up laughing. Sometimes they both admitted that the break up had left them feeling cold and alone, and offered each other comfort. Blaine would usually come home with Kurt after that, and they'd curl up on the couch watching movies. Burt would wander in every once in a while to talk to Blaine about gay rights and how much he loved his pin, then give Blaine a look that he interpreted as, "Don't you dare propose to my son."

Regionals came too soon. They won, and everyone was thrilled, of course. But Blaine couldn't quite hold onto his excitement. As overjoyed as he was to be going to Nationals, now that the competition was over there was nothing holding Kurt in Lima. It was time for him to go back to New York.

Blaine came over to help pack. Neither of them said anything as they moved around Kurt's room, folding clothes and locating a few lost items. It was all Blaine could do to look happy.

"Can I ask you something?" Kurt asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.

"Of course," Blaine said, gently setting down the sweater he'd been folding and facing Kurt.

Kurt took a deep breath and gently put his hands on Blaine's shoulders. "Do you still want to be boyfriends?" he asked. "Because I meant what I said last week about second chances. And I want to try again, if you want to."

"Kurt," Blaine whispered. He hardly dared to hope that this was real. "Do you mean it?"

"Yes," Kurt said, his voice confident enough that Blaine couldn't doubt it. "You have always been the best, most caring person I've ever met. I think part of me worried that the cheating had changed that, that you weren't the man I fell in love with anymore. But every single thing you do proves me wrong, and I want the chance to be with you again. I know it will be hard, since we'll have to go back to a long-distance relationship for a few months, but I really think we can do it this time. We'll be stronger now." Kurt was rambling now, looking nervous, like he thought there was even a chance that Blaine would reject him.

"Kurt, yes!" he said. "Oh my god, yes!"

Kurt grinned. "Yes?"

"Yes!"

They were hugging now, holding each other as tight and laughing because it was just so silly and perfect and oh my god they were together again. Blaine couldn't even believe it. Nothing seemed real. "Yes," Blaine continued to whisper, punctuating each one with a kiss to Kurt's forehead, just because he could. "Yes, yes, yes."

"What's going on? I heard Blaine say yes a lot," Burt demanded, appearing in the doorway. He raised his eyebrows (which were just starting to grow back from the chemo) when he saw the two of them wrapped up in each other, sporting identical grins. He gave Kurt an incredulous look. "_You_ didn't propose, did you?"

Kurt almost choked. "Of course not," he said. "There's no way we'd be ready for that." Burt glanced at Blaine but didn't comment.

Blaine had never been more grateful for Sam's advice in his entire life.

After spending a couple of weeks together, it was hard to go back to long-distance, but they made it work. Mostly because this time, they both knew exactly what they had to lose, and exactly how badly they wanted to keep that from happening. Between Skype dates and texts and phone calls, they somehow managed to make it work. Before either of them knew it, Blaine had graduated from McKinley and was on his way to New York.

He brought the ring with him. It stayed tucked away in the pocket of his suitcase, where Kurt would never find it, waiting for Blaine to be ready to use it.

It didn't take as long as he had expected.

Almost exactly a year after he'd first decided to propose, Blaine called up his best friend. "Do you remember the question I asked you in the hallway right before Regionals last year? And you told me I was crazy?"

"...Yeah," Sam said.

Blaine smiled. "Well, I'm about to ask you again. Sam, will you be my best man?"

Sam gasped. "Does that mean you're going to propose again? Wait, or have you proposed already? Did he say yes?"

Blaine grinned, looking down at the ring on his own finger, which the two of them had bought earlier today. "Yes, he said yes. Well, technically he announced that I needed to wear a ring, too, and dragged me to the store without bothering to answer my question. But he's wearing the engagement ring, so I'll take that as a good sign." Sam laughed, and Blaine couldn't help but join in. He was so giddy from excitement that he was amazed he hadn't already collapsed into a giggling mess. "And Sam? Thanks."

"For what?" Sam asked.

"Telling me how stupid I was being last year," Blaine said. "You're right. We wouldn't have been ready. But this... This is perfect." And it was. He and Kurt had had all year to work out their differences, and though they still had problems, they were much better at dealing with them. They'd settled in to their New York lives - after realizing how difficult it was to start a whole new life in a different city, Blaine had been kind of glad not to add the stress of planning a wedding on top of his transition into college. But best of all had been Burt's reaction.

The first time Blaine asked, Burt had made it clear that Blaine was not allowed to propose to Kurt. This time, Burt had immediately wrapped Blaine in a hug and whispered, "I still say you're too young, but you two will make it work." Burt's acceptance meant more to Blaine than he'd ever realized it would.

"Hey, that's what friends are for," Sam said. "You stopped me from doing stupid stuff plenty of times. Don't even mention it. But you do know that I totally have to include this story in my best-man speech?"

Blaine groaned and shook his head. "If you have to," he mumbled. Secretly, though, he didn't really mind.

Sam did end up using that story at the wedding, six months later, much to Blaine's embarrassment and Kurt's amusement. Of course Kurt already knew the general story, but not in nearly as much detail as Sam told it. Every couple moments Kurt would lean over and whisper, "Really, Blaine? Really? You bought the ring and everything?" And Blaine would glare and playfully shove him away while trying to hide a smile.

Finally, Sam reached the end of his speech. He made a move as if to sit down, but then stopped and turned back toward the audience. "I just want to add one more thing. I didn't mention this part in my story, but he's going to know what I mean." He smiled, turning slightly so he could look Blaine straight in the eye, genuine joy lighting up his face. "You know that I've always wanted you to be happy, dude, and now it's obvious that you are. So thank you for keeping your promise."


End file.
